Professor Monopoli's article identifies for the
first time an untended distortion in the accumulation of spousal wealth as a
result of† ERISA's fundamental framework.† The article also evaluates †the
impact of the economic downturn on defined contribution retirement plans and
calls upon Congress to rectify the gender disparity embedded in federal law
governing retirement plans around the nation.

"The common perception is that contemporary law and
policy aim to facilitate equality within marriage, including the area of
property ownership," Professor Monopoli wrote. "Equitable distribution is
grounded in a joint partnership theory of marriage that recognizes the
contributions of both spouses, whether or not purely monetary."But given the present
structure of the Employment Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), Professor
Monopoli found that the federal policy which incentivizes saving through
defined contribution plans is producing a result that is actually in tension
with contemporary laws and policies that facilitate equality within marriage, since
it is producing an increasingly unequal concentration of wealth in the hands of
husbands rather than wives within intact marriages. While defined contribution
plans are governed by federal law, marital property is generally governed by
state law. ERISA has been found to preempt state law, even in areas like
inheritance, property and family law that are traditionally reserved to the
states, she noted.

Professor Monopoli, founding Director of the Women, Leadership
& Equality Program at the School of Law, proposes that Congress amend ERISA
to confer an immediate ownership interest in one-half of such assets in each
spouse as they are earned and contributed by one spouse. †This would shift the
conceptual paradigm under ERISA to reflect a regime akin to a community
property theory of marital property.† †The article combines Professor Monopoli's
teaching areas including property, inheritance, and gender law.

"I find it heartening that the data supported my
insight," Professor Monopoli said. "This proposal would introduce a significant
change to theory underlying separate property law regimes and the recession
gives a great example as to why this matters in intact marriages. It means a
great deal to be able to contribute an original insight to the scholarship in
this area of the law ††through publications like this one."

She is a nationally-known scholar in the areas of
inheritance law and the status of women in the legal profession. Professor
Monopoli received a B.A., cum laude, from Yale College in 1980, and a
J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1983. Her most recent
publications include "Gender and Constitutional Design" in the Yale
Law Journal and "Gender and Justice: Parity and the United States
Supreme Court" in The Georgetown Journal of Gender and the Law. She
has also published in the Stanford Law & Policy Review and the Wisconsin
Law Review among others.† Professor Monopoli is also the author of the book, American
Probate: Protecting the Public, Improving the Process (Northeastern
University Press 2003), an intellectual history of the probate reform movement
in the late twentieth century. Professor Monopoli is an elected member of the
American Law Institute and she sits on the ALI's Consultative Committees for
the Restatement Third of Property (Donative Transfers) and the Restatement
Third of Trusts.

She is also an Academic Fellow of the American
College of Trusts & Estates Counsel. Professor Monopoli has been a visiting
professor at the George Washington University School of Law and she was the
recipient of the 2004 Outstanding Professor of the Year Award at the School of
Law.† In 2003, she founded the Women, Leadership
& Equality Program at the School of Law. The program conducts research
and offers an innovative curriculum that explores gender disparities in the
legal profession. Professor Monopoli also developed the School of Law's new Leadership,
Ethics and Democracy (LEAD) Initiative's curriculum for law students.